research project-playboy

TINTIN
Brand Analysis of Playboy Magazine

Branding Term Project
Hult international Business
School

MBA 2011

San Francisco

Module C

Hitesh Malhotra

Contents
Topic Page

1. Industry and Company Analysis………………………………………………….. 3
1.1 Category Description, Size and Growth ………………………........... 4
1.2 Company Analysis ………………....................................................... 6
2. Customer Profile and Framework ………………………………………………… 7
2.1 Targeted Consumer …………………………………………………………….. 8,9
2.2 Target‟s goal by consuming the
brand…………………………………………………… 10
2.3 Valued Consumers‟ Behavior ……………………………………. 11
3. Competitor Analysis…………………………………………………………………. 12,13
3.1 Product Attributes and Customer Perception…………………………………….. 13
3.2 Distinctive Competency and Differential
Advantage…………………………………….. 14
3.3 Competition with other Categories………………………………………………… 15
4. Positioning ……………………………………………………………………………….. 17
4.1 Brand Positioning………………………………………………………………… 17
5. Brand Mix and
Communication……………………………………………………………. 15
5.1 Advertising………………………………………………………………………….. 18-19-20
5.2 Social Media…………………………………………………………………………. 21
6. How the company lives it Brand…………………………………………………….. 23
6.1 The Ultimate Brand Custodian- Hugh Hefner 23

2

1. Industry and Company Analysis
1
Background
Playboy is an American adult magazine targeted primarily at men. It features photographs of nude
women as well as journalism and fiction. Founded in Chicago in 1953, with a seed capital of $1000
by Hugh Hefner and his associates, Playboy has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc. that extends to
all formats of media. 2Playboy is ranked at#54 at all time top 100 US brands of United States. With
massive globalization, special nation-specific versions of Playboy are published worldwide.

“„3Playboy features monthly interviews of notable public figures, such as artists, architects,
economists, composers, conductors, film directors, journalists, novelists, playwrights, religious figures,
politicians, athletes and race car drivers” .

4
Category Description
Men pornographic magazines or adult magazines are magazines that feature contents of a sexual
nature. Mainly targeted towards adult men globally, men's adult magazines contain photographs of
attractive nude women, and sometimes sexual activities. Some magazines are general in their
content, while others may be more specific and focus on a particular pornographic niche, part of the
anatomy, or model characteristics. Other than Playboy, well-known adult magazines
include Penthouse and Hustler. 5“Magazines may also carry articles on topics including cars, humor,
science, computers, culture and politics. Pornographic magazines are often sold in convenience
stores, newsagents and petrol stations”.

1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboy
2
http://www.rankingthebrands.com/The-Brand-Rankings.aspx?rankingID=179&year=253
3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboy
4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornographic_magazine
5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornographic_magazine

3

Growth
6According to Adams Media Research, Forrester Research and Veronis Suhler Communications
Industry Report, IVD, adult magazine industry is pegged at approximately $1 Billion. If we look at the
growth factor since 1940 to 2005, it had been a phenomenal incline in the business of adult magazine
till the year 2005. 7Overall the sale of US adult magazines contributes 5.92% to overall publication
sales revenue.

However, post 2005; we saw an internet revolution taking over print media due to its nature of free
and quick accessibility across the globe. The customers had open access to internet pornography
and thus there was a paradigm shift from tradition media to social media. 8Let‟s have a look at how
the revenue declined over 2005-2006 below to justify the assumptions-

6
http://www.forbes.com/2001/05/25/0524porn.html
7
http://www.nacsonline.com/NACS/Magazine/PastIssues/2010/August2010/Pages/Feature11.aspx
8
http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html

4

2006 and 2005 Pornography United States Industry Revenue Statistics

2006 2005
(Billions) (Billions)
Video Sales & Rentals $3.62 $4.28
Internet $2.84 $2.50
Cable / PPV / In-Room / Mobile / Phone Sex $2.00 $2.00
Exotic Dance Clubs $2.19 $1.34
Novelties $1.73 $1.50
Magazines $.95 $1.00
$13.33 $12.62
US porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC.
9

9
Edelman, Benjamin. Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter2009, Vol. 23 Issue 1, p209-220, 12p, 4 Charts, 1 Graph, 1 Map;
DOI: 10.1257/jep.23.1.209

5

Company
10
Market Share: Playboy is a brand that epitomizes US adult entertainment for various products.
Ranging from magazines that mix modern trends with racy photography to the iconic, smoking-jacket-
clad founder who decided to live the lifestyle his magazine portrayed. The company began riding on the
founder‟s vision of an „Alpha Male‟ through its magazine, and has since expanded into nearly following
platform:

Playboy TV has subscription-based television channels available in 70 countries on over 27 networks.
3,500 hours of original content are created each year. .Playboy is one of the nation's largest hardcore
pornography producers.

Playboy Radio features content ranges from relationship advice to interviews with playmates, the ladies
who appear in Playboy's products

Playboy Wireless offers content that is downloadable to mobile devices, like cell phones and PDAs.
Content includes videos, pictures, games, and ringtones, all with the Playboy theme.

Playboy magazine is a general-interest magazine, targeted to men. It is a market leader in men‟s
magazine as well as adult magazines. 11Following is the market share of Playboy Magazine.

The magazine was once the keystone of the company's business, but due to the deteriorating publishing
industry, the company has increased its focus on the digital realm with its various websites. Its free
site Playboy.com offers the same content as its magazine and its subscription based sites are
essentially adult websites with exhaustive offerings.

10
http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Playboy_Enterprises_(PLA)
11

6

Licensing: Playboy‟s rabbit head logo is one of the most popular symbols in the world. It signifies sex,
sophistication and glamorous living associated with Playboy. Their licensing division essentially sells
the use of the Playboy name, logo, and image, to other companies.

12
Scope: The paradigm shift from Paper-to-Pixel has greatly affected Playboy Inc. As depicted in the
figure on page7, the print publishing industry has seen a major drop in circulation. Internet
has replaced newspapers, pamphlets, and magazines, as the primary source for news and information.
The revenues of the organization and its print products have greatly suffered due to this phenomenon.
Today, the people feel that videos provide a higher sexual stimulus over pictures. With the uprising of
several websites that play „tubes‟, consumers no longer have to subscribe to „pay per use‟ services.
Sites like AskMen.com offer the journalism of Playboy at no cost, and thousands of small, ad-funded
sites offer free adult content without the inconvenience of subscriptions. However, having said that,
‟Playboy Online‟ is a major driver of the Playboy brand name even if the revenues are negligible, the
website and its content push Playboy's sexy and sophisticated image in such a way that anything
bearing the logo would be associated with the website. While magazine revenues might stagnate as
they appear to have done with the website, both will remain very important to generating revenue from
other segments of the company, especially in the high-margin licensing business. So basically
magazines and website facilitate the promotion of their licensing business.

If we look at the 13financials over last 4 years, we see a steep decline in both-the stock prices as well
as income. If we can base future earning based on past incomes, things looks slightly shaky for the
Playboy Enterprises.

12
http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Playboy_Enterprises_(PLA)
13
http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:PLA&fstype=ii

7

14
Looking at these factors, Playboy Enterprises said its founder offered to buy the remaining shares of
the company to make it private. In March 2011, Hugh Hefner had taken Playboy Enterprises private at
$6.15 per share, a deal value of $177 million. Currently, Hefner owns 69.5% of Playboy's Class A stock
and 27.7% of its Class B shares.

2. Customer Profile and Framework

Targeted Consumer
To understand the behavior and demography of the targeted consumer, we will analyze some 15charts below

14
http://www.suite101.com/content/playboy-wants-to-go-private-a260427
Pictures:http://www.google.com/search?q=playboy+products&hl=en&rlz=1C1SNNT_enUS417US417&nord=1&site=&prmd=iv
ns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=b4XdTY65Moa6sAOWl72lBw&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCQQ_AUo
AQ&biw=1366&bih=667
15

8

Regional Analysis on the
basis of pornography
revenue

The charts give us some insights into target customer profiling. Contrary to the popular belief that people in
United States are biggest customers of pornography, we notice that the biggest patron of pornography belong
to Asian countries (China, South Korea and Japan) and contribute nearly 80% to the overall revenue. Most of
the consumers are male, between the age group of 18yrs to 24 yrs and 25yrs to 34yrs.What‟s interesting to
watch is 14% female audience for a brand targeted for male.
16
However, during early days, Playboy was symbolized with liberal thinking and politics while living a life of
self gratification at the same time. Hence they had begun their journey by targeting certain people in American
Society known as „Baby Boomers‟. It comprised of young and rebellious 18 yr olds who were immersed in the
disco era, drugs and sex and alcohol.Subsequently, the brand had tarnished their image due to infamous drug
scandals.

16
Build Brand the Playboy Way by Susan Gunelius,Paperback,Penguin 1999

9

As the 1970‟s passed, Playboy brand grew and moved focus from business to celebrity. They ventured into
new geographies with the help of diversification. They opened 23 clubs, resorts, hotels, and casinos with
nearly 1 million members worldwide. This clearly helped them loop in people in the similar age group with
affluent lifestyle and higher disposable income.

Target’s Goal by Consuming the Brand
Playboy primarily attracts attention of all men from the world. Talking from consumer‟s point of view it provides
two basic stimuli –

1. Sexual Gratification through nude female pictures and steamy articles. Playboy signs up the most
attractive and famous celebrities for their cover shoot. Some of the famous people that have appeared in the
Playboy are Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Sharon Stone, Bo Derek, and Katarina Witt. They publish
articles about men‟s lifestyles and other intimate topics. It is a human trait to connect to various people talking
about topics of their interests.

2. Aspirational Value since Playboy projects a party culture with elements of showmanship and grandeur.
Consumers want to impersonate the Playboy culture that synergizes women and fun. It stems on the most
common behavioral virtue of being famous and impressionable. Today, the brand epitomizes as „a voice
against mediocrity‟, uniqueness and sexuality.

To validate our claims, I had researched through some 17reviews on Amazon.com from Playboy customers
and the following ones fit most appropriately here.

“What can I say? I have subscribed to Playboy for over 40 years. Every subject imaginable is likely to be in
the magazine eventually. The women are more beautiful than ever, and the interviews are always interesting.
No magazine covers more topics than Playboy with insight and intelligence. I particularly enjoy the Playboy
advisor and 20 questions”

18
“I like this magazine because it offers almost everything a man may want in a tasteful, entertaining and
informative magazine. Of course, the accent is on gorgeous women who are tastefully exposed but not
completely because it is always nice to have a little bit left to the imagination. The models are exceptional
women issue after issue and the magazine delivers again and again. There are questions with celebrity
persons and editorials; the humoristic part is also captivating. There is even political commentary. However,
the most memorable part are the top quality photos throughout the content and after I turned from average
into a great lover thanks to the bestseller scientifically guaranteed male multiple orgasms and ultimate sex, I
am even confident enough to hang out with girls out of my usual league. After all, it is nice to watch hot girls at
the pages but it is also good to do something to hang out with such. Overall, it offers a lot to young and older
men with various interests and demands, and I am sure that you will enjoy your subscription. They also add
spicy bonuses so don't be very surprised if you get also a DVD or something. Enjoy”

17
http://www.amazon.com/Playboy-1-year-auto-renewal/product-reviews/B001UJICAK by Edward L. Diamond (west palm
beach, fl United States)
18
http://www.amazon.com/Playboy-1-year-auto-renewal/product-reviews/B001UJICAK by B. Michael

10

Valued Customers’ Behavior
Customer Behavior blends elements from psychological and sociological perspective In an attempts to
understand the buyer decision making process for Playboy, I made use of , 19Black Box Model for our
product, the most valuable customers are the one who have been subscriber of Playboy Magazines for a
period of more than 5 years. They offer maximum revenue and word of mouth branding for new customer
acquisition.

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS BUYER'S BLACK BOX

Environmental
Marketing Stimuli Buyer Characteristics Decision Process
Stimuli

Attitudes:Rebellious,Fun Loving, Information search-Word
Product: Magazine
Economic: Students, Free to express of mouth, legacy.
Price : S83 for 1
young working Motivation: To be upmarket,lavish Alternative evaluation:
yr
professionals(Limite and grande,impressionable Low, gets little out of
Place :
d disposable Personality:Charismatic,Confident competitors in terms of
US,UK,Asia,
income) and Bold similar content.
Promotion:
Technological- Lifestyle: Upper Middle Class, good Purchase Decision: High
Discounts on
Internet Porn Etc. school, drive cars,club- Loyalty factor and brand
yearly
Cultural: Open, goer,adventu:re sports. association
subscribtions,free
Liberal Knowledge: Internet Savvy, Naive Post-purchase: pampered
DVD, Access to
Demographic:18-34 about current affairs, good with by the org. with free
Playboy online
gaming and gadgets. online and DVDs., club
memberships

19
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_behaviour#Black_box_model

11

3. Competitive Analysis

Playboy vs. Competitors
Talking from Playboy Magazine‟s perspective, we identify the following Men‟s Adult Magazines as top
competitors: - Hustler, Penthouse and Maxim. The following20 212223chart compares all three with respect to
product attributes and customer perceptions.

Organisation Playboy Enterprise Larry Flynt Enterprise Penthouse Dennis Publishing
Hustler,Barely Legal,Asian Maxim,Blenders,Insid
Magazines Playboy Fever,Hustler's XXX Penthouse Edge
First Copy Published in 1953 1974 1965 1974
Price(Yearly in $) 83 41.95 29.95 14.97
Total-23 countries,Majorly 45 Countries Majorly 30 Countries,major
Distribution US,China,Korea,Europe USA US,Australia,Germany,UK market-UK
Annual Sale(Millions) 4.27 0.5 2 2.5
Playmate,Perfumes,Appar Strip Clubs,Videos,Clothing,Sex PenthouseStore,
Other Products els,Clubs etc Toys,internet,Mobile App.,Casino Internet,DVD's,Celebs 31 other titles
Editorials on latest Articles on sports,
technology, cars, drinks, sex, work, health,
Pornographic Pornographic Pictures,blatantly games and sports . Monthly money and
pictures,nude violent and misogynistic themes like features like Celebrity Nudes, fashion.Semi Nude
Content celebs,lifestyle articles incest,abortions etc Vanities,Sex advice Celebrities
Upper- Middle
Class,Flamboyant,Baby Students,Young-
Boomers.Students,Young Sophisticated male,mostly Middle Age
Target Customers Professionals Populist,Working Class Society professionals,upmarket Professionals
Merchandise,Celebrity Harcore Pornography,Casino,Wide Celebrity Pictures,Online
Distinctive Competency Nude Pictures Array of Publications Videos Lifestyle Articles

Looking at factors like annual sale, content type and target customers, its appropriate to say that the true
competitor of Playboy Magazines is Penthouse.

20
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustler
21
http://www.thenewmagazinecity.com/maxim.html
22
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penthouse_(magazine)
23

12

Distinctive Competency and Differential Advantage
In today‟s world of social media, customer reviews develop a brand perception. For Playboy and Penthouse
respectively; I had researched through customer reviews on Amazon.com

Magazine Total Reviews Average Star Ratings Excerpts
Playboy Magazine October 2008 is 132 pages long and features Playmate
Kelly Carrington on front. Overall the articles are good reading and two out
of three of the pictorials are good. The articles like the Adderall Effect and
how it is misused in college to achieve better grade is excellent. Others
Playboy 60 articles like Everything We Need to Know We Learned in College, Shoot-
What can I say but this book is for those of us who go solo a lot and need
material to fuel our fire with. IF you read this book and think that all these
events actually take place you live in lala land, but that is ok as long as it
Penthouse 60 gets you aroused!

Below are the reviews from Epinions.com (24Epinions.com is a general consumer review site that was
established in 1999. Epinions was acquired by Shopping.com in 2003, which in turn was acquired by EBay in
2005)

Magazine Total Reviews Average Star Ratings Excerpts

We took Playboy for two years, and it's over now. We enjoyed reading it
most of the time, but we've never seen such business practices from a
Playboy 90 magazine in all our lives.

There's no doubt that Penthouse Magazine has been a successful enterprise,
as this magazine has been competing with the likes of Playboy for years. Its
a lot like Mr. Hefner's publication, in that it incorporates articles and jokes,
Penthouse 30 along with what we all want from such a magazine

As we observe out of a sample population of 240 customers across different geographies, a rating of 4 out of 5
is given to both the magazines. That gives us some insight about customer‟s perception towards both brands-
somewhat similar. This is despite the fact that Playboy is distributed in 23 countries vs. distribution of
Penthouse in 45.Lets see what makes Playboy different from Penthouse.

I have listed 2 factors that make Playboy distinct:-
1.Licensing: Among the products not produced by Playboy that feature the Playboy logo, name, or other
associations, are clothing lines, lifestyle and entertainment products, perfumes, a nightclub and casino, and a
mansion resort in Macao. While licensing isn't the largest part of the Playboy business, it is the most profitable
and has grown tremendously over the past three years.

24
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epinions

13

2. Celebrities: Playboy has revolutionized the way popular celebrities market themselves and define a personal
brand. 25Many celebrities (singers, actresses, models, etc.) have posed for Playboy over the years. This list is
only a small portion of those who have posed. Some of them are:
Film: Marilyn Monroe (December 1953) (Never actually posed for Playboy itself), Jayne Mansfield (February
1955) Mara Corday (October 1958), Ursula Anderson (June 1965), Kim Basinger (February 1983), Drew
Barrymore (January 1995), Denise Richards (December 2004).
Music: Latoya Jackson (March 1989/Nov 1991), Nancy Sinatra (May 1995), Samantha Fox (October 1996)
Television: Women of Baywatch (June 1998), Claudia Christian (October 1999)
Sports: Torrie Wilson (May 2003 and March 2004, Amy Acuff (September 2004), Amanda Beard (July 2007)

Differential Advantage: Playboy provides a cluster of benefits that customers value and believe they cannot
obtain anywhere else.
Brand Product Subscription Distinctive Competence
$83-$53.05
Discount Celebrities Pictures, Articles. Vouchers for Playboy
Playboy Magazine Voucher=$29.95 Merchandise
Reflects the changing role of men in American society,
featuring articles on fashion, famous personalities, the arts,
Penthouse Magazine $30 politics, the media, etc. Nude Celebs.

Edited for young, intelligent, professional men. Maxim Digital
Maxim Magazine $14.97 concentrates on sports, sex, work, health, money and fashion.

Hustler Magazine $41.95 Twisted and uncensored photos displaying female genitalia.

Playboy offers 3 major differential advantages for the customers:-
a. Reputation/Trust – Playboy has the loyalty of customers since inception. Some of their oldest subscribers
are in the age group of 56-67 yrs. People have trust that they will get a hold of a new copy every month without
any delay.

25
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboy#Celebrities

14

b. Adaptability- The unique licensing enables people to display a statement of sophistication and sexiness by
using the Playboy „Bunny‟ logo products. This customer psyche helps playboy stay ahead of their competitors by
introducing newer merchandise from time to time.
c. Price – Playboy subscription come with outstanding discount vouchers that make it cheaper than its nearest
rivals.

Competition with other Categories
Playboy clearly competes with 3 major categories of products:-

a) Internet – These days with the increase of internet users, more and more pornographic sites are coming
into picture. Most of them are offering free access to tubes – a short review of major pornographic videos.
A staggering 40 million Americans are regular visitors to porn sites and contribute nearly 60% of worldwide
$4.9 Billion revenue to porn industry.26 A study of university networks by Palisades Systems found
searches for child pornography at 230 colleges nationwide. The research revealed that 42% of all searches
on file-to-file sharing systems involved child or adult pornography. The study also found that 73% of movie
searches were for pornography, 24% percent of image searches were for child pornography, and only 3%
of the searches did not involve pornography or copyrighted materials. The online porn inventory comprises
of 420 million porn pages.

Sites Distinctive Competency
spankwire.com Free DVD downloads
I phone and Blackberry
pornhub.com version
redtube.com Huge library, quick downloads
webcams,sex blogs, long
youporn.com videos

b) Home Videos – 27Adult video sales and rentals have increased in general over the years. In the United
States 405 million videos were sold or rented in 1992. That number rose to 957 million in 2006.28Hollywood
currently releases 11,000 adult movies per year – more than 20 times the mainstream movie
production. 39 million homes receive the adult channels in scrambled form, while the number of children
with potential exposure to such images is about 29 million.

26
http://www.blazinggrace.org/cms/bg/pornstats
27
28
http://www.blazinggrace.org/cms/bg/pornstats

15

29
U.S. Adult Video Sales and Rentals

Since Playboy enterprises has its own version of Online and DVD’s, its safe to assume that they compete amongst
their own categories at times.

C) Strip Clubs – 30A strip club is an adult entertainment venue in which striptease or other erotic or exotic
dance is regularly performed. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, but can also adopt
theater or cabaret-style. In USA, the advent of strip clubs is dated way back after World War 2.31 As of 2006,
the size of the U.S. strip club industry was estimated to be US$2.19 billion, generating 19% of the total gross
revenue in legal adult entertainment. There are 3 prime categories of Strip Clubs

Full nude – The male or female performer is fully nude by the end of the performance.

Topless – The female performer's upper body is exposed but the genital area remains covered during a
performance.

Bikini – The female performer's breasts and genital area remains covered. Or the male's genital area remains
covered.

In 2005, an estimated 300,000 women worked as strippers in the U.S., across 3,000 clubs. Since then, the
number of clubs in the U.S. has grown to approximately 4,000 by 2010.

Strip Clubs provide an avenue to get a more surreal experience as compared to the one they get from an adult
magazine or a porn video, since if offers an opportunity of physical interaction via „Lap Dances‟. Moreover the
availability of alcoholic drinks and popular music at the venue help people live a truly erotic moment.

29
30
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_club
31

16

4. Positioning

Brand Positioning
Playboy’s Positioning Statement: Nothing comes closer to the hearts and minds of men.

The complication with this kind of positioning is that this statement comprises of so many different things, all with
different characters and appeal. Contrary to the major brands such as Nike or Amazon, that have a very clear
and distinct positioning, Playboy‟s dilemma is to be sexy as well as classy, entertaining but informative,
exclusive but popular.

After careful evaluation of different categories of magazines for men, we find 3 major classifications –

a) The business and news magazines like Outlook, Business Week or Time. These magazines own events
and financial analysis but hardly any adult entertainment. Moreover the lifestyle trends depicted are outdated.

b) Lifestyle Magazines like GQ, Esquire, Sports Illustrated that own literature and high achievement. They talk
about contexts like cars, adventure sports, workouts, and diets etc that appeal to the modern male. They are
almost too literate, and way down the list in popularity for entertainment.

c) Pure Skin Magazines like Hustler, Asian Babes etc that own female gynecology and purely depict raunchy
pictures with no editorial content.
Playboy ideally positions itself very smartly between category B and C with traits of category A (if the news is a
global phenomena like 9/11 etc.)This helps them maintain their distinctive competency by inculcating rich
Pornographic content and classy editorial articles about men‟s lifestyle, satirical jokes and a blogosphere
column. They incorporates all the elements for mature men who have already arrived at some sense, have their
own personal style, are comfortable with their achievements but are still reaching for more pleasurable
experiences.

Playboy

17

5. Brand Mix and Communication

Advertising

Currently being a privately owned enterprise – Playboy, it was hard to ascertain the kind of budgets allocated to
the marketing mix. However, I checked for the biggest 32revenue generator for Playboy and tried to follow their
activities concentrated towards that segment.

We observe that the 2 biggest revenue generators are – internet and home DVD‟s. Playboy primarily advertises
for DVD‟s on their33 website and 34YouTube channel. On a closer look at their YouTube channel, we can find
small snippets of their upcoming DVD‟s. Through their website, they promote subscription to their online paid
content-Playboy TV. The contents of both look up market and attractive.

32
http://sparxoo.com/2010/07/20/playboys-internet-strategy/
33
http://www.playboy.com/
34
http://www.youtube.com/user/playboytelevision?blend=1&ob=5

18

Playboy’s YouTube Channel

Playboy.com Home Page

19

Looking at the effectiveness of their YouTube Channel,we find close to 12000 subscribers and 16 million
views.The stats confirm the success of this initiative towards marketing DVD‟s.

However, in their website most of the content is paid content. It doesn‟t follow the popular web publishing
format i.e. give free prime content and then sell advertising space. The point to ponder is that the website still
works on web 1.0 format that enables no user interactivity or engagement in today‟s world of Social Media.
Due to government restrictions, Playboy wasn‟t allowed to advertise on TV or banners in certain countries like
USA. However, in places like Germany, Holland etc, where they are permitted to use that space(as seen
below),the ads look creative and meaningful in content.

20

A point to remember is that Playboy franchises a vast range of merchandise like perfumes, apparels, shoes,
watches etc.The advertisement of these products do serve as a surrogate for Playboy products and promote
the content indirectly.

Social Media
Playboy has a phenomenal fan following on Facebook – close to 5 million. However its presence in Twitter is far
more humble with a mere 205,000 followers. Although it is hard to determine its effect on sales, it does give us
an additional insight on the customer demographics and behavior. Let us see how.

21

Interestingly, the huge difference in numbers can be attributed to the following35 data chart

Clearly, we can list 3 factors for Playboy more popular on Facebook- majority in lower age group- 18yrs-25 yrs
vs. Twitter‟s 26-24 yrs; High School base of 21% vs. 7% of Twitter and lastly $40% Facebookers follow a brand
vs. 25% Tweeters.

35
http://gigaom.com/2010/12/20/facebook-vs-twitter-an-infographic/

22

6. How the company lives it brand

Mr. Hugh Hefner
Playboy‟s founder Mr. Hugh Hefner is considered as one of the best brand custodians in the world. Here‟s a true
example of the extravagance portrayed through the founder. In the 70‟s when Playboy brand was mushrooming,
and had just achieved its record monthly sales, Mr, Hugh Hefner who had once agonized over every detail of the
magazine, brand and business, withdrew from day to day operations. His focus moved from business to
celebrity. He purchased the most expensive property in Beverly Hills and named it Playboy Mansion. This
property has been a venue for numerous, larger than life celebrity private parties hosted by different set of
„Playmates‟ over the last 40 years. Not only did he purchase a huge villa, but he extended his parties to the sky
with the purchase of a private jet „Big Bunny‟ .The state-of-the-art DC9 jet would have the most beautiful looking
women dressed as „Bunnies‟ to cater to the rich and famous guests. He also started a „Playboy after Dark‟
Television Series to live the Playboy fantasy in every possible way.

Playboy Enterprise was the first player to start a trend and has been an inspiration to
numerous other players, and will continue to do so in future. Playboy is just not about
nudity, parties or lifestyle. It’s a depiction of every man’s hidden fantasy and
aspiration.Truly, Playboy indeed is a power brand of 20th Century------------------End------------------

23

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